John Cox, 46 will serve nine and a half years after having his term increased at the Court of Appeal in London yesterday (May 25).
Cox threw a cigarette butt in a toilet bin while travelling from Birmingham to Sharm el Sheikh in August 2015.
A similar unrelated toilet blaze had broken out earlier onboard the aircraft, the court heard.
As a result, cabin crew had already used two of the four extinguishers onboard and additional water fighting the fire.
The pilot feared the crew would be unable to quell the second blaze, started by Cox, if it took hold, The Times reports.
After calling mayday, he had to put the plane into a sharp descent to stage an emergency landing.
There was a fire safety expert onboard who helped crew tackle the fire and bring it under control.
Cox, of Kidderminster, pleaded guilty to reckless arson at Birmingham Crown Court in March and was originally jailed for four and a half years.
The sentence was later challenged in the Court of Appeal, where the solicitor general, Robert Buckland, QC, criticised the punishment for being too lenient, The Times reports.
Lady Justice Sharp agreed and increased the term.
She told the court: “The potential for causing disaster here was plain and obvious. The sentence passed was unduly lenient; his offence called for a deterrent sentence and condign punishment.”
Cox who was described as a “hard-working family man” of previous good character, was said to be under stress at the time of the offence due to the break-up of his marriage.
He had worked for Royal Mail and served nine years in the army.
The court heard Cox had begun drinking in the airport departure lounge and kept topping up while in the air.
He did not intend to start a fire but the judge said that throwing a cigarette into the bin at 33,000ft “came very close to deliberate fire-setting,” the court heard.
Francis FitzGibbon, QC, chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, said that the revised sentence was exactly in line with guidance.
